Completing the PIP questionnaire

This advice applies in England, Northern Ireland and Wales. Read about Adult Disability Payment in Scotland.

On this page, we advise how to complete the PIP2 form in a way that best describes your child’s needs.

What is the PIP2 form?

As part of claiming Personal Independence Payment (PIP), your child, or you acting as their appointee, will need to complete a questionnaire.

This is called How Your Disability Affects You, or the PIP2 form.

How do I get the PIP2 form?

When you make your initial call to claim PIP, you’ll have the choice of receiving a paper PIP2 form by post or completing your claim online. The paper form and online form are identical.

If you opt to claim online, you’ll receive an email link. You’ll need to create a password and enter some basic personal information to prove who you are. You must do this within seven days of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) sending you the link. If you miss this deadline, you’ll need to ask the DWP to send you a new link.

Once you’ve completed this first stage, you should receive a security code to access your online form.

When must I send the form back?

You or your son or daughter must complete the questionnaire within a month. The same deadline applies to both paper and online claims. If you have opted to complete a paper form, the covering letter will state the date for return.

If you don’t return the questionnaire by that date, the DWP will normally turn down your claim for PIP. Any existing Disability Living Allowance (DLA) payments will also stop. The DWP can make exceptions with late returns of PIP2, but only if it accepts there was a good reason for not returning it in time.

About the form

The PIP2 questionnaire asks a small number of general questions about your child’s health conditions, their medications and treatments, and which professionals they see, if any.

Most of the questionnaire then gathers information about your child’s ability to do a range of different activities. This is your opportunity to give a detailed explanation of how their condition affects them. Give as much detail as possible.

You can also attach additional evidence, such as information from educational or health staff or other professionals supporting your child. This is a good idea. The more supporting evidence you provide, the better the chances you will get a decision without needing a face-to-face assessment.

What activities does the PIP Unit assess?

PIP is made up of two parts, called components: a daily living component and a mobility component.

People applying for PIP are awarded points according to how well they can carry out 10 daily living activities and two mobility activities.

The 10 daily living activities

Preparing food.
Taking nutrition (eating and drinking).
Managing therapy or monitoring a health condition.
Washing and bathing.
Managing toilet needs or incontinence.
Dressing and undressing.
Communicating verbally (speaking).
Reading and understanding signs, symbols and words.
Engaging with other people face-to-face (mixing with people).
Making budgeting decisions (making decisions about money).

The two mobility activities

Planning and following a journey.
Moving around.

The PIP scoring system

Every PIP activity has a set of descriptors. Each of these descriptors has a number of points a person can score.

The number of points awarded varies depending on how limited a person’s abilities are in that activity. If someone is seen as being able to undertake an activity independently, then they score 0 points in that activity.

If more than one descriptor in an activity applies to your son or daughter, they are awarded the one that gives them the most points.

Your child may score points for an activity if they need:

Physical assistance from another person in completing a task.
The continuous physical presence of someone during a task to make sure they are safe.
Prompting to undertake a task, i.e reminding, explaining or encouragement to undertake a task. Prompting does not always need to be in the disabled person’s presence, so prompting via the phone can sometimes count.

Unlike with DLA, the assessment does not compare your child to other children of the same age. It may help to consider how your child could manage each task if they were living alone.

Where can I find full details of the PIP descriptors and their scores?

Before completing the questionnaire, it is a good idea to familiarise yourself with the full PIP scoring system and descriptors.

You can find these in pages 18-25 of our parent guide to Personal Independence Payment [PDF].

Variable conditions

You don’t need to show that a descriptor applies to your son or daughter for the whole of the day. So long as it applies at some point during a day (and is more than momentary), the DWP should treat it as applying to them.

If their condition varies on different days, then:

If only one descriptor within an activity applies on more than 50 per cent of the days, the DWP will use that descriptor to award points.
If two descriptors within an activity apply on more than 50 per cent of days, the descriptor with the higher number of points applies.

Read an example of two descriptors applying

Sean has juvenile idiopathic arthritis and has just turned 16. He usually requires help with dressing. Everyday he needs help with dressing his lower body, but on four days out of seven, he also needs some help in dressing his upper body. On more than 50% of days, the following descriptors both apply:

6(d) – needs assistance to be able to dress or undress their lower body (two points).
6(e) – needs assistance to be able to dress or undress their upper body (four points).

Sean gets four points for dressing under descriptor 6(e), as this is the higher scoring of the two descriptors.

Where no single descriptor within an activity applies on more than 50 per cent of days, your child will still score points if two or more of the different descriptions (not counting the one that scores zero points) added together apply on over 50 per cent of days. If this applies, their score will be based on the description that applies for the greatest number of days.

Read an example of multiple descriptors added together

Fatima has depression and fibromyalgia. She often needs help with preparing a cooked mail. She requires prompting to cook on 40% of days and needs physical assistance with cooking on another 20% of days.

Fatima meets descriptors:

1(d) – needs prompting to be able to either prepare or cook a simple meal (two points) on 40% of days.
1(e) – needs supervision or assistance to either prepare or cook a simple meal (four points) on 20% of days.

Because she needs help in preparing a meal on more than 50% of days in total, she can be awarded points for this activity. She will scores two points under 1(e), as she needs prompting on more days than she needs physical assistance.

Please also note that a young person will only be awarded points for an activity if their ability to carry it out is affected for at least half of the days over a 12-month period.

Can your child undertake an activity reliably?

The DWP must take into account your child’s ability not just to carry out an activity, but to carry it out “reliably”.

This means being able to carry out an activity:

Safely

This means in a way that is not likely to cause harm to themselves or others.

Not being able to carry out a task safely means that it is likely that harm will occur, rather than it simply being possible that harm will occur. A risk can be said to be likely if there is a real possibility of something happening which cannot be sensibly ignored.

You do not have to prove that the risk is more likely than not. Instead, the PIP Unit will need to consider not only the likelihood of harm occurring, but also the consequences of the possible harm that may occur.

Repeatedly

As many times as reasonably required.

In a reasonable time period

No more than twice as long as someone without any health problems.

To an acceptable standard

This means of a standard that is “good enough” and which most people would normally achieve. The effects of any pain and breathlessness your child experiences will be relevant in deciding this.

Examples

So, if your child can wash and bathe themselves independently, they would not normally score any points for that activity. However, they may still score points if:

They are at risk of falling when washing and bathing themselves.
They can’t wash themselves to an acceptable standard.
It would take them hours to do so.

Using aids and appliances

If your child uses an aid or appliance, or could be reasonably be expected to, the PIP Unit will take this into account when assessing their ability to carry out an activity.

An aid could be a hoist or grab rail. Or it could be an item you have purchased yourself, such as a step stool or a phone app. It doesn’t have to be designed for use with a disability, but it must improve your child’s function.

Getting a final score

Daily living component

The individual scores your child is awarded in each of the 10 daily living activities are added together. This total determines whether they qualify for the daily living component.

If their combined score is seven or below, they will not receive any daily living component of PIP.

A combined score between eight and 11 points entitles your child to the standard rate of the daily living component.

If they score 12 points or more, they will get the enhanced rate of the daily living component.

Mobility component

Your child’s score in each of the two mobility activities are also added together. This total determines whether they qualify for the mobility component and at what rate.

If their combined score for mobility is seven or below, they will not receive any mobility component of PIP.

A combined score between eight and 11 entitles your child to the standard rate of the mobility component.

If they score 12 points or more, they will get the mobility component at the enhanced rate.

Watch our PIP videos

Our benefits advisers have made a series of 12 videos about the PIP2 form. They include some practical tips on things to take into account when providing information about your child’s needs in each of the activities the questionnaire covers.

You’ll find the YouTube playlist below or on our YouTube channel.

There are 12 videos in this series. Use the toolbar button in the top right of the video screen to cycle through the video series.

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